Credit cards with cryptographic CPUs, so called “financial smart cards”, have not gained acceptance for e-commerce purposes in the United States. Credit cards with magnetic stripes dominate not only point-of-sale terminal transactions at retail outlets, but also Internet PC-based transactions from home. The PC's web browser uses SSL encryption to protect confidential information and credit card numbers given to on-line retailers.
Financial smart card readers have been built into TV set-top boxes in the past, but applications which took advantage of them never materialized. One of the problems was with the inconvenience of the built-in smart card reader. It is speculated that it may have been too troubling for home consumers to get up from the couch, find their wallet or purse, choose a credit card, and then walk over to the set-top box to insert the card into the reader. Because the interaction and menu screens were expected to take some time to complete, the user would need to either leave the card in the reader for a period of time or, in the case of a magnetic stripe card, swipe it at the right time. Then the user would typically need to go back to the couch to interact with some more on-screen displays (OSDs) before completing a purchase. And so use of financial smart cards or magnetic stripe credit cards may have been seen as inconvenient. And there was also the risk of forgetting about the card in the STB card slot when the customer left home.
Smart card or magnetic stripe readers built-in to TV remote controls have been suggested so that a user might stay seated on the couch. But the remote controls required reliable 2-way communication with the TV that didn't exist.
Set-top boxes (STBs), e.g. used with pay-TV services, use Conditional Access (CA). Usually a CA smart card is used with a card reader built-into the STB or a crypto CPU mounted on the STB motherboard is used. The smart card or crypto CPU insures that the customer pays for the broadcast audio visual content that is being watched—typically for a subscription to a certain type and number of channels. If a return channel is available, e.g. phone or Internet, Impulse-Pay-per-View (IPPV) may be available. If a 2-way back channel is available, e.g. in cable an out-of-band back-channel, then Video-on-demand (VOD) programming may be accessed. In the case of IPPV, content may typically be viewed speculatively. But then a reportback must be made of the programs watched for billing purposes. In the case of VOD, the smart card or cryptographic CPU is involved in securing the signal through encryption but is not involved with billing since the service operator already knows what VOD program was watched. The content that can be viewed is typically limited to a particular pay-TV service provider whose set-top box is being used to watch TV.
There are many small internet service providers that would like to charge a small amount of money for providing content or services. However, the current trend seems to be to pay for those by showing advertisements. It may be too difficult for a small internet service provider to successfully charge for content or services for the different reasons. In order to be able to charge, an account needs to be set-up which requires ID, password, credit or debit card information, billing address, and email address. The account information is often required by the credit card agencies or banks offering debit cards in order to combat fraud since the credit card and debit card numbers can be easily copied and used by others. And this information may be needed regardless of whether the account will be for a one time transaction or recurring transactions. The user is expected to spend some time and effort to type in all the information in the right fields. This is arduous enough with a PC, but with a TV with only a remote control, it is even more troublesome. The TV remote control typically only has up/down/left/right arrows and 10-key alpha-numeric keys. Alternatively, a soft keyboard can be shown on-screen or a keyboard, e.g. wireless Bluetooth or wireless USB enabled, may be interfaced with the TV. The soft keyboard is cumbersome to use, and the wireless keyboards are relatively expensive and not generally available.
There is reluctance for customers to give personal and financial information especially if they are not sure that they will like the content or service that is being provided. A fear customers have is that the personal information will be used misused, e.g. for identity theft purposes with many fraudulent charges, or that the email account provided will be spammed with unsolicited advertisements. The more service providers are given the email address, then the greater is the likelihood that the account will be spammed. When an email account is spammed, it is hard to know who the culprit was, and sometimes the only remedy is to close it down and replace it with another one with a different name. A spammed email account is therefore very annoying.
Another reason for anonymity is the purchase of adult programming. To prevent possible embarrassment, a person may not want to have adult movies associated with their account, e.g. listed on a credit card bill or service provider monthly bill.
FeliCa is a contactless smart card system developed by Sony. Edy is an electronic payment system using FeliCa as a stored value card. Some SonyEricsson phones include a FeliCa IC. These phones are used in a similar fashion as the contactless smart card version. At the point-of-sale terminal, like the card, the phone is waved over the contactless reader at the check-out counter. The purse on the FeliCa IC is cryptographically accessed and debited. Edy is presently used at convenience stores, at railway or bus stations to pay for tickets, and when connected to a PC, to pay for items on the Internet. The electronic purse on the FeliCa card or SonyEricsson phone can be recharged at special kiosks or through a banking website managed through a PC. When used with the PC, a USB2 wireless reader/writer is needed to interface to the FeliCa IC. FeliCa suffers from the same problems as a financial smart card or magnetic strip credit card when used in conjunction with a TV. The user must get up out of the couch and do something. The wireless reader adds significant complexity and integration cost to a set-top box or TV.
TVs are becoming Internet capable. In 2007, Sony announced the Bravia Internet Video Link (BVIL) which is a module that adds web browsing and content decoding to a Bravia TV. Due to its popularity, the module functionality will now be built into the TV in 2008.
There is a desire to allow users to purchase content such as music videos and movies from a multitude of Internet service providers as well as access online news and magazines from large number of on-line outlets—all of which may be consumed using the TV's online connection. By allowing viewers to easily use their TVs to make payments, the viewer may be given pay as well as ad supported content to choose from and the overall TV experience can be made more pleasant.
As understood herein, it is desirable to make TV viewing and content browsing as easy and convenient as possible for the viewer. The approach should minimize hardware complexity. Further, it is desirable under some circumstances to permit the viewer to make such purchases anonymously, without having to establish an account and to provide information such as name, credit or debit card data, PayPal account, email address, and the like.